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By Fred D. DeVaney and

The coercimeter, as its name implies, is an instrument for measuring the coercive forcet of magnetic substances. It was developed by Davis and Hartenheim in the Special Studies Section, Metallurgical Division. A detailed description of this apparatus may be found elsewhere.2 The coercive force determinations of magnetic materials are interesting because of the relationship established by Gottschalk,4 who showed a linear relationship between the magnetization coercive force and the specific surface of comminuted particles. The value of this relationship in determining grinding efficiency has been shown by Dean.3 The determination of the surface contained in the subsieve sizes has always been a difficult problem for investigators. They made approximate measurements of the surface of coarse materials by sizing on screens, but for the determination of the surface of the sub-sieve sizes it was necessary to make detailed grain counts or elutriation tests, or to study dissolution rates. The technical literature contains many references to other methods for determining these surfaces, either by some special apparatus or by mathematical calculations based on distribution lines. Many of the methods are long and tedious, and the results of some, at least, are questionable. he turbidimeter gives quick results on ground cement. By using magnetite as the material to be ground, a simple determination of its coercive force by the coercimeter, requiring 10 minutes or less, can be transposed directly and accurately into units of relative surface. This subject has been pursued further by the U. S. Bureau of Mines in cooperation with the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, Rolla, Mo., and the following is a description of the results.

Jan 1, 1939

By J Green, R Bartlett, A Goldstone, D Ferguson

Solid Energy New Zealand is developing an extension of its Rotowaro open cast coal mine near Huntly. This large 8 year, 11 million tonne opencast coal mine, referred to as the Awaroa Project, is fundamental to Solid Energy's medium term business strategy and meets its open pit coal resource needs while further resources are developed for the long term. Equally importantly the project is also fundamental to meeting New Zealand's energy requirements in the face of growing demands, a dwindling gas resource, and dry winters creating hydropower shortages. This project with its national significance in the current energy climate, its significance to Solid Energy as a business and its significant size has been consented against a backdrop of criticism of the Resource Management Act and the introduction of the 2003 amendment to the Act. As is common practice for this type of project Solid Energy conducted a significant technical programme in order to complete a comprehensive assessment of environmental effects. Solid Energy also has an active programme of community and interested party consultation and this programme formed the basis for project based consultation with local residents, regulatory bodies and iwi. As a result of the approach taken the environmental effects of the project were shown to be no more than minor and Environment Waikato considered that the project should be processed under the limited notification provisions of the RMA amendment. The project was processed under RMA quickly and efficiently and consents were granted within 6 months of lodgement. The RMA and its 2003 amendment provided a good framework for dealing with this project and did not impede the process of development of this important energy resource.

Jan 1, 2004

By U B. Pal

Downsizing and decommissioning of nuclear facility operations is increasing the stockpile of various different grades of Radioactive Scrap Iron (RSI). Disposal of this material not only represents significant resource and value lost, but also necessitates long term monitoring for environmental compliance. The latter results in additional recurring expense. It is desirable to be able to decontaminate the RSI to a very low level that can be recycled or used for fabrication of containers for RSI disposal instead of using virgin metal to fabricate the container. Electro-Slag Remelting and Refining (ESR) is often used for decontaminating radioactive contaminated sources of scrap iron such as stainless steel. Non-radioactive oxides of cerium are used to simulate the radioactive oxide contaminants of Uranium and Plutonium. The success of the ESR process is strongly dependent on the capacity of the slag to rapidly incorporate the radioactive contaminant (simulant). In this study we have measured the slag-metal partition coefficient for cerium and investigated the reaction mechanism for the dissolution CeO, in the slag.

Jan 1, 2002

By B. H. Kear

Clustering of slip bands in different systems has been observed in both ordered and disordered Cu3Au crystals compressed in the <110> orientation. Certain features of the slip band patterns are explained in terms of reactions between dislocations with Burgers vectors at 120 deg; in a few rare cases, the slip band evidence suggests that the Products of such reactions form diffuse tilt boundaries between the differently slipped regions of the crystal, similar to the known behavior of ionic crystals, but not nearly so well defined. WHEN crystals with orientations favorable for multiple slip undergo plastic deformation, slip may occur in different systems in localized regions, so that clusters of slip bands are developed. This phenomenon has been observed in fee1-4 metals and also in ionic crystals having the sodium chloride structure.5-8 In the ionic crystals, the boundaries formed between the differently slipped regions of the crystal assume characteristic orientations and are associated with macroscopic tilts that are plainly visible on the sides of the crystal. Recently, this interesting feature was explained in terms of the formation of diffuse low-angle boundaries as a result of interactions between families of glide dislocations in the different systems meeting in the boundaries.9 This paper describes an attempt to obtain similar evidence for boundary formation in an fee crystal. The alloy Cu3Au was chosen for the present study simply because this material is currently being used in a general study of differences in deformation behavior of the ordered and disordered phases of this alloy, which will be described elsewhere. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The two specially oriented compression specimens used in the present study were prepared from a melt-grown single crystal by careful cutting, grinding and polishing. The finished specimens were about 6 mm by 2 mm in cross section by 6 mm tall, with their ends parallel to (101) and sides parallel to (111) and (121); the broad faces of the specimens were made parallel to (711). Both specimens were annealed in an evacuated quartz tube at 850oC for several hours, slowly cooled to 500°c, and then quenched into water in order to obtain the disordered state for the alloy. One of the specimens was partially ordered (with S- 0.8) by reannealing at 350oC for 100 hr. After these annealing treatments, both of the specimens were electropolished. 10 Finally, the specimens were compressed in the [loll orientation and their stress-strain curves were recorded. The deformation was carried out in increments of a few percent strain. At each stage in the deformation the specimens were unloaded, removed from the compression jig, and examined optically for slip bands. Before reloading, the specimens were repolished, so that the observed slip band patterns were characteristic of a particular stage in the deformation. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS Fig. 1 show!; the stress-strain curves for the ordered and disordered specimens and also indicates the stages 1, 2, and 3 where the deformation was interrupted for examination of slip bands. The curves show marked differences in flow stress and in work hardening rate in the two specimens, as observed by previous workers.11,12 Also, it was found, in agreemement with the observations of Taoka and Sakata,&apos;3 that the plastically deformed disordered alloy showed the characteristic coarse slip bands of alloys, whereas the ordered alloy exhibited a fine slip band structure similar to that of pure metals. Slip Band Observations. In what follows, the description of the slip band patterns, with accom-

Jan 1, 1962

By AIME AIME

As already announced, the XCIIId meeting of the Institute will be held at Toronto, beginning July 23, 1907. Hotel Headquarters will be at the King Edward Hotel, in which also the sessions will be held. The Queens, Rossin, Wallen, Iroquois and Palmer are good hotels not far from the King Edward. Members must secure their hotel-accommodations beforehand, by direct correspondence with the hotel they select. For those who neglect this precaution, the Local Committee will doubtless do what it can, but is unable to promise anything. Correspondence concerning this meeting (including notices of intention to attend it) should be addressed hereafter exclusively to Mr. W. G. Miller, Provincial Geologist, Bureau of Mines, Toronto, who is the representative of the Local Committee. The excursion to Cobalt, Lake Tenagami, Sudbury, etc., arranged by that Committee, involves the use of a special Pullman train for meals and lodging. After waiting a reasonable time to hear from members, the Local Committee has made its contract for Pullman cars. According to its latest report, there was still room for additional excursionists. Under this head, application made immediately to Mr. Miller may not be too late. Sessions for the presentation of papers, etc., will be held at the King Edward Hotel on Tuesday afternoon, July 23, and Wednesday morning and afternoon, July 24. The following papers have been accepted: 1. Sonic Reflections on Secrecy in the Arts, by James Douglas, New York, N. Y. .2. The Wilfley Table, by R. H. Richards, Boston, Mass. 3. The Tar-Sands of the Athabaska District, by&apos; Robert Bell, Ottawa, Can. 4. The Occurrence of Nickel in Virginia, by Thomas L. Watson, Blacksburg, Va. 5. Coal-Briquetting in the United States, by E. W. Parker, Washington, D. C.

Jul 1, 1907

By F. W. Davis

For some years this subject has been of interest to metallurgists. Previous to the War some work was done in :Belgium. on the enrich.ntSnt of the blast with oxygen i.."'l. connection with the smelting of iron orei.; in the blast furnace. In the United States, the late .J. E. ,Joh."lson, .Jr., \ve.s :interested in the possible use of 0J1.:ygen for metallurgical operations ar.:i cerried on some experic:.ental work along these lines pre..,,-ious to his de.e.hft Dr. F. G. Cottrell, formerly Director of the :Bureau of Mines, De7?,H''(;:,-of,,:a:t: of the Interior, and now Direc'cor of the Fixed lifi trogen Itesearc:l-1 La -:c r;a.-o='Y, Depart­ment of .Agriculture, first directed. the Eurec:ru 1 s attention to this subject. When it first began this work, the Director of the Burea.t1. of Mines, beca11se of his interest in this investigatio:::i, asked :Mr. M. H. Roberts: Vice-President of the FraU:din Railway Supply Company to select an Advisory Corr:nittee to work with the BJ::eau on tl1is subject; it also asked Mx-. Robez·ts to act as Cha.irman of this C<)1.,_1l!lHtce. T!le personneJ. of the Comrnitee which was selected. by r. Roberts is as follows:

Jul 1, 1923

By S J. Hawke, L A. Dominguez

In non-ferrous metal mining operations, it is generally necessary to crush and grind the ore to a very fine particle size to effectively liberate the contained mineral from the host rock. Fragmentation by blasting is the first stage of this comminution process.Numerous studies and independent modelling of the Mine to Mill process have demonstrated the potential for significant downstream productivity improvements from improved blast fragmentation. However, safety and environmental constraints associated with the blasting process usually limit the extent to which blast energy or powder factor can be increased.An effective blasting solution has been identified that enables the safe utilisation of powder factors several times higher than those used conventionally to provide significant improvements in fragmentation. The solution uses a static ‘blanket’ of broken rock overlying the blast to contain this increased blast energy and control rock movement. To produce this broken layer of rock, the subdrill in each blast is significantly increased to preblast (or precondition) the entire stemming region of subsequent blasts on the next mining bench.The solution has been evaluated at a large open cut poly-metallic mine in Mexico. Results from the application of this technique have shown significant improvement in run-of-mine fragmentation, with subsequent downstream productivity improvement indicated.CITATION:Hawke, S J and Dominguez, L A, 2015. A simple technique for using high energy in blasting, in Proceedings 11th International Symposium on Rock Fragmentation by Blasting, pp 321–326 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 24, 2015

By Benjamin Webber

MANY of the auriferous placers of the arid Southwest differ widely from the standard types of stream and eluvial deposits of more humid regions, although exhibiting some of the features of each. This diver-gence in characteristics is of geological and economic importance and appears sufficient to warrant the consideration of these placers as a class distinct from both stream and eluvial deposits. It is hoped that the consideration of these auriferous gravels as a distinct type of deposit will facilitate recognition of morphological and economic features that might remain obscure if these deposits were viewed in the light of stream or eluvial placers whose type locality is a more humid environment. "Bajada placer" is proposed as the designation for this type of placer deposit. Bajada is the Spanish term for slope and is used locally in the Southwest to indicate the lower slope of a mountain range, the portion consisting of rock debris and standing at a much lower angle than the rock slope of the range proper. It has been used in a geologic sense by Schrader1 and others. The type locality of bajada placers is the Sonoran Desert,2 where they occur on the bajada or rock debris slope of desert ranges. Stream placers are represented in the Southwest, but most of them lie within the mountain topographic province, the Mexican Highlands2 section of, the Basin and Range physiographic province. Eluvial placers may occur in the mountainous semiarid Mexican Highlands but are almost unknown in the extremely arid Sonoran Desert, as mountain slopes are generally too steep to permit the accumulation of any considerable mantle of residual debris. Since their salient distinctions are almost wholly the result of formation under conditions of extreme aridity, bajada placers are largely confined to the Sonoran Desert, although a few occur in the adjacent Mexican High-lands. They may be modified by the action of ephemeral streams, in which case the placer gravels of these arroyas approach stream placers in type and habit of occurrence, but their relation to an arid environment and the bajada type is usually apparent.

Jan 1, 1935

By Benjamin N. Webber

Many of the auriferous placers of the arid Southwest differ widely from the standard types of stream and eluvial deposits of more humid regions, although exhibiting some of the features of each. This divergence in characteristics is of geological and economic importance and appears sufficient to warrant the consideration of these placers as a class distinct from both stream and eluvial deposits. It is hoped that the consideration of these auriferous gravels as a distinct type of deposit will facilitate recognition of morphological and economic features that might remain obscure if these deposits were viewed in the light of stream or eluvial placers whose type locality is a more humid environment. "Bajada placer" is proposed as the designation for this type of placer deposit. Bajada is the Spanish term for slope and is used locally in the Southwest to indicate the lower slope of a mountain range, the portion consisting of rock debris and standing at a much lower angle than the rock slope of the range proper. It has been used in a geologic sense by Schraderl and others. The type locality of bajada placers is the Sonoran Desert,2 where they occur on the bajada or rock debris slope of desert ranges. Stream placers are represented in the Southwest, but most of them lie within the mountain topographic province, the Mexican Highlands2 section of the Basin and Range physiographic province. Eluvial placers may occur in the mountainous semiarid Mexican Highlands but are almost unknown in the extremely arid Sonoran Desert, as mountain slopes are generally too steep to permit the accumulation of any considerable mantle of residual debris. Since their salient distinctions are almost wholly the result of formation under conditions of extreme aridity, bajada placers are largely confined to the Sonoran Desert, although a few occur in the adjacent Mexican Highlands. They may be modified by the action of ephemeral streams, in which case the placer gravels of these arroyos approach stream placers in type and habit of occurrence, but their relation to an arid environment and the bajada type is usually apparent.

Jan 1, 1935

By Benjamin N. Webber

Many of the auriferous placers of the arid Southwest differ widely from the standard types of stream and eluvial deposits of more humid regions, although exhibiting some of the features of each. This divergence in characteristics is of geological and economic importance and appears sufficient to warrant the consideration of these placers as a class distinct from both stream and eluvial deposits. It is hoped that the consideration of these auriferous gravels as a distinct type of deposit will facilitate recognition of morphological and economic features that might remain obscure if these deposits were viewed in the light of stream or eluvial placers whose type locality is a more humid environment. "Bajada placer" is proposed as the designation for this type of placer deposit. Bajada is the Spanish term for slope and is used locally in the Southwest to indicate the lower slope of a mountain range, the portion consisting of rock debris and standing at a much lower angle than the rock slope of the range proper. It has been used in a geologic sense by Schraderl and others. The type locality of bajada placers is the Sonoran Desert,2 where they occur on the bajada or rock debris slope of desert ranges. Stream placers are represented in the Southwest, but most of them lie within the mountain topographic province, the Mexican Highlands2 section of the Basin and Range physiographic province. Eluvial placers may occur in the mountainous semiarid Mexican Highlands but are almost unknown in the extremely arid Sonoran Desert, as mountain slopes are generally too steep to permit the accumulation of any considerable mantle of residual debris. Since their salient distinctions are almost wholly the result of formation under conditions of extreme aridity, bajada placers are largely confined to the Sonoran Desert, although a few occur in the adjacent Mexican Highlands. They may be modified by the action of ephemeral streams, in which case the placer gravels of these arroyos approach stream placers in type and habit of occurrence, but their relation to an arid environment and the bajada type is usually apparent.

Jan 1, 1935

By C. D. Woodward

ThE subject of elcctric signals for the despatching of mining cagey through shafts has received cousiderable attention recently from various mining companies. The Anaconda Copper Mining Co. has found it necessary to develop a system that is rcliable, safe and simple in operation, and easy to repair. The movement of all mine cages or skips is under the direction of a station tender, who rides on the cages when men or supplies are being lowered or raised; when ore is hoisted, he is stationed at a skip pocket for loading and despatching the skips. For the station tender&apos;s use, two signal systems are installed in cach hoisting compartment, and he is the only employee authorized to use them. One system is known as the "AC " or station bells, as it is operated from the 110-volt, 60-cycle, power service; the other system, called the "DC" or shaft bells, takes its energy from closed-circuit primary batteries. As a supplemcnt to the two main signals, a buzzer system is installed The general arrangement is similar to the main signal, except that there is a mine buzzer at each station. When a signal switch connected into the buzzer system is pulled down, all buzzers arc operated, thus notifying the station tender that he is wanted at seine particular level. Placed on the station posts, and within easy reach of the men on the cages are the signal pull switches for the main signals. The station, or "AC," pull switches are furnished with a short rope as shown in Fig. I, while the shaft, or "DC," pull switches are equipped with ropes that extend down the shaft past the next station. To avoid all confusion in the use of the three signal systems, a standard arrangement has been adopted in all mines for the location of the pull switches. Fig 2 illustrates the position of the pull switch at the various mine stations for the main signal systems, but it does not show the buzzer pull switch; this is fixed to the roof timbers about 25 ft. back from the shaft. If the skip pockets are a considerable distance below the station, a pull switch for each main shaft compartment is connected to the "AC" system and placed at this point. However, if the distance is short, a light cord is attached to the station pull switches and dropped down to the skip pocket.

Jan 1, 1923

By C. D. Woodward

ThE subject of elcctric signals for the despatching of mining cagey through shafts has received cousiderable attention recently from various mining companies. The Anaconda Copper Mining Co. has found it necessary to develop a system that is rcliable, safe and simple in operation, and easy to repair. The movement of all mine cages or skips is under the direction of a station tender, who rides on the cages when men or supplies are being lowered or raised; when ore is hoisted, he is stationed at a skip pocket for loading and despatching the skips. For the station tender&apos;s use, two signal systems are installed in cach hoisting compartment, and he is the only employee authorized to use them. One system is known as the "AC " or station bells, as it is operated from the 110-volt, 60-cycle, power service; the other system, called the "DC" or shaft bells, takes its energy from closed-circuit primary batteries. As a supplemcnt to the two main signals, a buzzer system is installed The general arrangement is similar to the main signal, except that there is a mine buzzer at each station. When a signal switch connected into the buzzer system is pulled down, all buzzers arc operated, thus notifying the station tender that he is wanted at seine particular level. Placed on the station posts, and within easy reach of the men on the cages are the signal pull switches for the main signals. The station, or "AC," pull switches are furnished with a short rope as shown in Fig. I, while the shaft, or "DC," pull switches are equipped with ropes that extend down the shaft past the next station. To avoid all confusion in the use of the three signal systems, a standard arrangement has been adopted in all mines for the location of the pull switches. Fig 2 illustrates the position of the pull switch at the various mine stations for the main signal systems, but it does not show the buzzer pull switch; this is fixed to the roof timbers about 25 ft. back from the shaft. If the skip pockets are a considerable distance below the station, a pull switch for each main shaft compartment is connected to the "AC" system and placed at this point. However, if the distance is short, a light cord is attached to the station pull switches and dropped down to the skip pocket.

Jan 1, 1923

By Roger Davieds

FACT: a company?s profitability (or loss) is directly related to the efficiency and effectiveness of its maintenance operation. Fact: in order to contribute in a positive manner, maintenance must understand what its true purpose is in the organization. It is easy to say our main purpose is to increase: ?equipment uptime ?OEE ?asset life cycle We all understand this; so does management.

May 1, 2010

The 67th Regular Meeting of the Rocky Mountain Coal Mining Institute convened in the C&apos;est Bon Hotel, Park City, Utah, and was in session at 10:00 a.m. The meeting was called to order by Past President John A. Reeves, Vice President, Mid-Continent Coal & Coke Company, Carbondale, Colorado. Mr. Reeves introduced President Max A. Robb and read a brief biography as follows: A Westerner by birth, he has chosen to pursue his mining career with United States Fuel Company, a subsidiary of United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company. United States Fuel Company is the largest underground producer of commercial and utility coal in the Intermountain West. Max attended Utah schools and has kept his education current through correspondence courses in mining technology and business education, and through attendance at various university-sponsored development seminars.

Jan 1, 1971

By J. Iannicelli

Kaolin tailings ponds play an important role in reclamation of land and water. Discharges impounded from kaolin plants include oversize fractions consisting of coarse kaolin, mica, quartz as well as magnetically extracted contaminents, acid filtrates, and plant washdown streams. Tailing ponds perform an essential function in sedimentation of particulates, blending and reoxygenation of liquid waste, and neutralization and clarification of discharge water. During the past fifteen years, most kaolin firms have segregated their coarse filler waste to allow for possible reclamation for production of delaminated coating clay. This excess coarse filler fraction constitutes a reserve for future coating clay production.

Jan 1, 1985

By Raymond B. Ladoo, C. A. Stokes

This paper summarizes the economic problems of the industrial mineral industries which are essentially different from those of the metals and the fuels. Failure to understand and evaluate such factors as markets, place value, and substitutions of one mineral for another may be disastrous. The engineer should be as responsible for profitable operation as he is for technical efficiency. The Raw Materials Survey of Portland, Oregon, is described.

Jan 2, 1950

By H. Shaw

It is now generally recognized that the gravitational method of geophysical surveying is a valuable aid in elucidating the geological structure of the subsoil and enables the practical geologist to deduce the presence of useful deposits. The particular suitability of the torsion balance to the location of large and important subterranean structures has given rise to a wide application of this method by many of the important oil companies in their search for future supplies, and so intense have been these efforts that little has been heard of the method in other connections, with the exception of occasional references to its application in the location of hidden deposits of metallic ores, salt and lignite, and a number of accounts of its use in the elucidation of geological structures. Its success in the location of salt domes is well known, and establishes it as one of the most important of the geophysical methods, especially for the indirect location of oil. In the British Isles, however, no large occurrence of oil is likely to be revealed, and here the practical application of the gravitational method has been restricted almost entirely to the search for ores. This type of survey possesses well marked characteristics, and presents a gravitational problem that has necessitated the development of a special and probably unusual plan of campaign, full details of which it is hoped will shortly be published. The problems and difficulties encountered in this work are of necessity fundamentally related to those met with in the search for oil by means of the torsion balance, but they also possess several special and distinctive features which undoubtedly differentiate them from the obstacles confronting the oil prospector, and which call for special consideration and treatment. In certain of the various oil-producing areas of the world, and particularly in the Gulf Coast region, the geology may be regarded as comparatively simple, while the oil is usually associated with a large and well defined structure such as a salt dome or anticline, which is capable of giving gravitational indications sufficiently extensive to be detected by the torsion balance over a fairly wide area of the ground surface. It is customary, therefore, during the preliminary survey of an area for oil, to

Jan 1, 1929

By P. Leo

Al-Mg-Si alloys are widely used as medium-strength structural materials; extrusion is the most common processing route. In the present hot deformation investigation of a 6060 alloy, the microstructure of the alloy has been analyzed in the as-cast state, after homogenization heat treatment and after hot deformation by tensile tests in the range 400-490°C and 10-4 to 10-2s-1 on both as cast and homogenized alloys. After deformation the microstructure of the as-cast alloy exhibited cavitation. The flow curves at the lowest test temperature T show a gradual softening after a stress peak, being more evident for the alloy deformed in the homogenized state in association with a high yield stress; at higher T a plateau is attained which is lower as T rises and strain rates decrease. For each fixed T, the ductility decreases as strain rate increases for the homogenized alloy whereas, for the as cast alloy, it rises with strain rate. Constitutive analysis gives Q = 240kJ1mol for the homogenized alloy in agreement with published values; this indicates a more rapid strength decline with rising T than Al, suitable for good hot workability along with the lack of cavitation.

Jan 1, 2011

By M. A. Mahboob, T. Celik, B. Genc, I. Atif, S. Ali

"Mapping of hydrothermally altered areas, which are usually associated with mineralization, is essential in mineral exploration. In this research, open source reflectance spectroscopy data from the multispectral moderate-resolution Landsat 8 satellite was used to map altered rocks in the Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa. The unique spectral reflectance and absorption characteristics of remotely sensed Landsat data in the visible, near-infrared (NIR), shortwave-infrared (SWIR) and thermal infrared (TIR) regions of the electromagnetic spectrum were used in different digital image processing techniques. The band ratios (red/blue, SWIR 2/NIR, SWIR 1/NIR), spectral band combinations (Kaufmann ratio, Sabins ratio) and principal component analysis (Crosta technique) were applied to efficiently and successfully map hydrothermal alteration minerals. The results showed that the combination of spectral bands and the principal component analysis method is effective in delineating mineral alteration through remotely sensed satellite data. The validation of results by using the published mineral maps of the Council for Geoscience South Africa showed a good relationship with the identified zones of mineralization. The methodology developed in this study is cost-effective and time-saving, and can be applied to inaccessible and/or new areas with limited ground-based knowledge to obtain reliable and up-to-date mineral information.IntroductionMany developing nations depend on exploration and exploitation of mineral resources to sustain their economic growth. Usually, the traditional mineral exploration techniques require enormous finances, prolonged time, and tremendous manpower, particularly in areas that are not easily reachable (Maduaka, 2014). Furthermore, mineral exploration required state-of-the-art techniques and expertise along with geological, geochemical, and geophysical datasets, which may not be easily available or may be lacking where access is problematic (Kaiser et al., 2002; Bemis et al., 2014). Modern remote sensing technology has proved to be one of the highly efficient and robust techniques used for mineral exploration. The use of remote sensing satellite images for geological mapping and mineral exploration usually involves studying the physicochemical properties of rocks and weathering soils, such as mineralogy, landforms, geochemical signatures, and the spatiall distribution of lineaments (Bhattacharya et al., 2012)."

Mar 1, 2019

By L. A. Ayres da Silva, J. P. G. Negri, A. L. M. Ayres da Silva

"Rock hardness is dependent on the type and quantity of the various mineral constituents of the rock and the bond strength that exists between the mineral grains. As the book “The Complete ISRM Suggested Methods For Rock Characterization, Testing and Monitoring:1974-2006” explains, hardness is a concept of material property. As such, the quantitative measure of hardness depends on the type of the test employed.Among the three types of tests that have been used to measure the hardness of rocks and minerals: 1) indentation tests; 2) dynamic and rebound tests; 3) scratch tests, the authors of this paper chose indentation tests, more specifically the Vickers test, and complementary verified the correlation between the results of the Schmidt sclerometer tests (rebound tests) and the Vickers microhardness tests in a set of the same 9 (nine) granite rocks.The objective of this research was to verif y the correlation of one created index, based on the Vickers test that can be able to represent the rock material hardness. We know that Vickers tests determine the microhardness of individual rock minerals. A pyramidal shaped diamond is applied to the surface with a specified force. The area of the permanent residual deformation divided by the applied force is a measure of the hardness. Using the relative participation of the mineral components of the rock, we established a hardness index denominated EVM (Equivalent Vickers Microhardness).The correlation of the EVM with others strength properties and application parameters like UCS (Uniaxial Compressive Strength) to study sawability of granite blocks have presented very good results. The association of equivalent microhardness with others strength parameters, allowed to find powerful algorithms for analyzes of the rock materials behavior under diversified circumstances, as the sawability of granite blocks, as we can see in Fig. 1.Other very interesting correlations were found as the EVM values and that were obtained by the use of the Schmidt impact hammer for the superficial hardness determination."

Jan 1, 2015